California Republican Party

CAGOP Update: Leaders Lead and California Democrats Are Getting Hammered by the CAGOP (Finally)

May 112025

Leaders Lead. You’ve read this axiom a bazillion times in my political lifetime in critiques of the CAGOP Leadership.

It appears that Politico and Newsweek may well have been attempting to sound the alarm to their fellow democrats with articles they wrote in March. Perhaps they recognized the sea change in the CAGOP. Even flaming communists recognize leadership – even as they quote clinical trump haters like Mike Madrid and continue to miss the fact that 2025 Trump is not 2017 Trump.

Enter the Corrin Rankin administration.

The California Democrats blocked a provision in a bill introduced by one of their own assemblymembers that would have made soliciting 16 and 17 years olds for sex a felony. This went national and was a monster embarrassment for the dems.

Why did this go national? The CAGOP went straight for their throat. The democrats went berserk on the floor of the legislature as well making some of the most insane arguments I have seen in favor of leaving solicitation of 16 and 17 years olds a misdemeanor.

you gotta wonder if Mike Madrid was in mourning over this

Yep the CAGOP made news by torching the democrats like Mark Gonzalez (who I believe has major personal issues) that led the charge to water down the sex trafficking bill. Gonzalez made headlines with his insanity.

Wanna buy a Teenager? Ok with me.

It got so bad that the stuff went national. You can see Gay Republican Guy Benson torching Mark Gonzalez for equating buying teenagers for sex with Gay Rights.

The CAGOP’s rapid response on this issue caused headlines everywhere. I do not recall seeing anything like this in 20+ years of doing CAGOP politics. It was so bad that the democrats ran ads accusing the Republicans of doing what they did!

This is what happens when Leaders Lead.

And of course the Sacramento Bee lied multiple times trying to cover for the democrats, but CAGOP Vice Chair John Park tore in to them along with others:

I doubt the Bee makes a correction because they have become and out and proud Pravda-style rag. (Versus some thin veneer of journalism in the past)

And then, the Coup. The democrats realizing that fake ads, the Sacramento Bee and others could not save them, capitulated:

Absent the CAGOP getting ads up and spending real money (make a note, the CAGOP has money and is raising plenty more), none of this happens.

Leaders Lead.

Now, if I was the CRA / others in the opposition, rather than sitting in silence creating the impression that you are upset over the success… I’d suggest the next time the Rankin Administration kicks some ass (pun intended), try a response like this:

The CRA applauds the effort by the CAGOP to embarrass the extreme left on the issue of prostitution

Today, the humiliated democrats had to undo one of many insane votes they took in the legislature, agreeing after all to make buying 16 and 17 year olds for sex a felony. We applaud the CAGOP for their leadership in spending money and earning a million impressions highlighting this issue. When we opposed the current leadership of the CAGOP at the March 2025 convention it was because for years we were told “We’d take the fight to the democrats” only to see them take the fight to conservatives.

It appears that we are seeing something different now than we have for the last generation of CAGOP leadership. We are cautiously optimistic about the future direction of the CAGOP and look forward to more leadership like this from the Rankin Administration.

Instead, the opposition missed an opportunity to show mature leadership. Leaders Lead.

Today’s Installment of “Why the Opposition to CAGOP Leadership Can’t Have Nice Things”, a Frank Exercise in Fact Checking Part 1,356,781

California Republican Party 13 Responses »

May 042025

Apparently, in order to be a member of the opposition to the CAGOP’s Leadership (Be it Brulte, Patterson or Rankin) you must believe that all CAGOP elections are rigged (including the two times I worked on behalf of their side for Steve Frank and Travis Allen), because you lose them all. You can’t spell CRAzy without CRA. Seeing how far Senator Mike Morrell, a man I once knew and respected, has fallen is disturbing, but far too common in Conservative politics.

FYI – Mike Morrell got beaten handily in his race with Corrin Rankin pushing 59% of the vote against him.

I got my hands on a recent installment of Heard on the Flim Flam! Did you know that the CAGOP opposes election integrity? Well, that’s what Steve Frank says… Did you know that the CAGOP bullied the anti-sematic John Paul White?

Well – let’s take on the lies one at a time. Because facts are stubborn things…

Oh, I checked and found about twenty organizations in California that use the term Republican. Some were called. Not a single one received a cease and desist letter from the CRP. So, if you paid dues to the CRP you can not use the term Republican—but if you do not pay CRP dues you are allowed to? This is very confusing. This is the type of action that makes people re-register as NPP or not register at all.

This is a compound lie – Frank bizarrely twists the words of the CAGOP’s attorney who sent JPW a cease and desist letter for using the word Republican in his group. JPW had been doing it, clearly in my opinion and in the opinion of others (including the CAGOP’s Board / Attorney) to legitimize himself / group using the Republican label. When you read Steve’s rant he says that Ashlee Titus, said Attorney, indicated that paying dues to the CAGOP does not make one a Republican.

Steve Frank knows two things – you can’t present your group as a Republican Group without approval of the CAGOP’s Board of Directors. He fought against the charter of several groups over the years and is deliberately misleading people in his rant. I’d also like to see him try to tell a judge with a straight face what he just wrote is what Ashlee meant. I am sure a straightjacket and laughter would await him – along with a padded cell, fingerpaints and a cute little Gerbil with a spin wheel.

Like the Democrat Party, the California Republican Party does not support or endorse the Reform California ballot measure for the November, 2026 election to mandate Voter ID. Though more than 80% of California Republicans support this, President Trump supports this, the CRP does not.

If we are ever to get to be relevant again in California we need honest elections—no illegal aliens voting. The Golden West Republican Women are holding a statewide zoom on May 6 with the author of the measure, Assemblyman Carl DeMaio. He will explain the contents of the measures and how to volunteer to get signatures, to qualify for the November, 2026 election.

Once upon a time, Steve Frank was the top political advisor to former CAGOP Chair Tom DelBaccardi. There were a few times in the disastrous tenure of DelBecarro where proposed ballot measures were floated before the CAGOP’s Boards / Committees. Mr. Frank knows darn good and well that the CAGOP Initiatives Committee can not consider endorsing a ballot measure until it is cleared with Title and Summary. It is also common that the Committee waits until the measure is qualified before taking action because 90% of Ballot Measures fail to make the ballot.

If the CAGOP actually opposed election integrity like Frank says, why hasn’t Mr. DeMaio attacked the CAGOP? Perhaps this is because said initiatives committee adopted a resolution in support of Voter ID without endorsing a specific measure.

JPW broke the rules – Frank says that means the Lawyer deemed people “Not a Republican”

Frank misrepresented how the CAGOP allows the use of “Official Republican” in the presentation of a group.

Frank misrepresented the CAGOP’s long standing position on Voter ID.

And Steve Frank is not the only one on the opposition side with a fantastical vision of reality:

This is how far down the political toilet the opposition has gone, they really need to take people like Stella Song and Cyndi Sheehan on publicly. Sheehan is so far afield that Buhler (speaking of Attorneys) could light her up for defamation.

Lie 1: Buhler did not buy proxy votes. Sheehan would have an impossible time proving that. Having worked against Buhler many times in past chair campaigns – including as Steve Frank’s campaign manager, I know this to be an outright lie. Buhler did what Cindy is incapable of, called people, asked them and got the proxy (or convention vote)

Apparently, Cindy’s people took over the Silicon Valley GOP (speaking of groups allowed to use the term Republican – make a note Mr. Frank), and tossed Buhler.

Lie #2: Buhler demanded $1 Million to endorse the recall. I know Mr. Buhler well, this is not something he’d say at all. Again, Sheehan/Frank would have an impossible time justifying this lie. I have always said, if you are going to recall a statewide officeholder, you need at least $1 Million to start the campaign. Does that mean I demanded $1 Million for a recall? FYI – what Sheehan is describing is influence peddling which in some cases is a crime. I guess accusing people of crimes with no basis in fact is not unique to just trump haters, the deep state and the left.

Lie #3: (Out of order and saved for last on purpose) Luis Buhler is anti-Trump. Yep, he is so anti Trump that he has been a Trump delegate to multiple RNC Conventions (Like Corrin Rankin), but I digress.

While there is a long history of Buhler vs Park cage matches in CAGOP politics, I always tried to never defame the man while beating the crap out of him. Buhler would tell you the same thing if you asked him as we have spoken a few times over the years.

So, here is how far down the crazy train the opposition has gone. I am now defending Mr. Buhler! What is wrong with the people I once fought on the side of!? Stop Lying, that does not advance conservative values, but what it does do is validates the case of your political opponents!

Sigh.

<<<sound of asylum door swinging open in the comments section>>>

Did you know that the CAGOP Voted to Audit All of Their Accounts? Guess Who Voted No?

2025 Elections, California Republican Party 49 Responses »

Mar 272025

Remember Jack Guerrero’s acceptance speech when he won election to Treasurer of the CAGOP? Top-down audit? Doge CAGOP?

Well, he had a chance to. At the most recent CAGOP Board Meeting – Jack Guerrero objected to unanimous consent when it was moved and seconded to audit the CAGOP. I guess Jack has been comparing notes and listening to Steve Frank. It is quite the bear trap when you have to oppose your own publicly stated positions in order to be different.

Every. Last. Board. Member. Voted. Yes. Except Jack. Whoops. (The yes vote includes Robert Rego who Guerrero defeated for Treasurer just last week)

2025 California Republican Party Convention Recap: Meet Some of Team Rankin and Some Unsolicited Advice for the Opposition

2025 Elections, California Republican Party 14 Responses »

Mar 262025

I still love you guys, but you keep blowing it

Maybe I am wasting my time writing this blog. Some would tell me that the following passage of scripture applies:

“… nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.” Matthew 7:6 NKJV Bible

The concept is can your audience handle and act on the message? Or will they shoot the messenger? I have a lot of people in the opposition I consider friends. I am also of the belief that there are a few people within the ranks of the opposition that are unhealthy leaders at best, and at worst would have some sort of diagnosis.

The opposition will never win or achieve their goals of “taking back the CAGOP” when they are listening to morally corrupt people.

I chose the photo of me with the FBI hat on to commemorate that the FBI showed up at my front door after the CAGOP’s staff freaked out over me blowing my stack on them. I was working for Steve Frank’s ill-fated Chair Campaign in 2021. I have zero regrets about standing up for my principles, but that race and seeing the players involved started a process.

I was told by mutual acquaintances that just weeks after losing his bid for CAGOP Chair, Steve Frank characterized my working for him as a “Marriage of Convenience” and that he still hated me. This is the kind of behavior I used to trash David Stafford Reade and others for. Steve is a leader in the opposition, yet morally, is equivalent to any of the ‘bad guys” I used to trash. I damn near got hauled to prison by a couple of FBI agents while trying to elect the guy chair…

When you add the fact that Steve Frank’s column is full of outright lies, manipulated facts and opinions that should be in the DSM manual – he has decimated his legacy as a leader. Frank is 78 years old and should have retired several years ago. As he gets older and angrier, his destructive impact on the opposition increases… similar to a star going supernova when it dies.

I have learned a life lesson, I will retire from the political scene before I wreck my legacy. I will carry the memory of watching Steve spiral as he has aged with me the rest of my life… and I am not alone.

Secondly, forgive people. (more on that further down the post)

From an email sent to me by an opposition member:

I told Mike and will be telling Jack to drop kick Steve Frank and warned them about Sky Jones. She is a grifter and scammer.

Sky Jones is someone featured in one of my past posts.

And the next two came to me via text:

“…The vitriol and rabid behavior exhibited by the Morrell gang was ridiculous. The lies, the in your face coercion tactics were beyond shocking…”

“… it’s becoming clear that our MAGA base is being infiltrated by real conspiracy theorists…”

There were several that recognized that Steve Frank needs to go and the opposition would do well to marginalize Mr. Frank and make him go away.

A second toxic opposition leader is Tom Hudson. I have written about this guy a lot. When he gets up to speak at convention, it is a signal to the gathered convention to vote opposite of anything he said. His legal “advice” helped drive several county parties in to ineffective chaos. The democrats should put the guy on retainer. The older he gets, the worse his already clinical level of rage gets. He overcompensates for everything he lacks as a man with Anger. It is a sad waste of talent. As long as he has influence on the opposition, the opposition will be ineffective and morally corrupt.

We had a laboratory for when Steve Frank and Tom Hudson ran the CAGOP – Tom Del Bacardi. The Party was $2MM in the hole when Del Becarro was ousted as Chair after one miserable failure of a term. (It also included a lot of lost seats everywhere in California as well)

I have known Hudson and Frank for over 25 years and have ample personal experience and evidence with both of them. They both need to go and smart, disciplined people would do well to separate them from anything that matters, period.

Even now, Steve Frank is writing about how Tom Ross is a victim of Corrin Rankin. Almost every negative thing I ever learned about Tom Ross came from Steve. Ross is the consummate “Swamp” player if there ever was one. Steve Frank’s lack of moral compass shows clear as he is going to oppose everything the CRA ever wanted if it is Corrin Rankin doing it and he is defending team McCarthy swamp creatures as well.

The opposition has no clue who Corrin Rankin is, Steve Frank and Tom Hudson want it that way.

Rankin is going to clean up the CRP. Many things that I heard old now deceased CRA dinosaurs talk about 25 years ago are coming out of Corrin. She wants the party to follow its’ bylaws. She wants to increase participation and transparency. It sounds like Bill Back’s presentation to CRA in 2002! (Back lost to Duf Sundheim)

So do Frank and Hudson want a healthy CAGOP? Nope, they want control and are leading the opposition into the abyss in the process.

Corrin’s first batch of appointments tell the story:

Scott Winn manages her political operation. Scott and I have a lot of negative history – but nothing speaks to who Winn is better than the fact that he was willing to talk with me and work with me on her behalf despite our history. Several people tried to being David Reade and I together and Reade refused every time. Jessica Patterson and Andy Garakhani were the same way – cross them once and you were done forever.

Scott and I were able to connect, bury the hatchet and move foreword. He is an outspoken Evangelical Christian and lives like it. I don’t agree with him on everything, but he will serve us all well. More importantly, he can tolerate disagreement and work with people.

Ron Nehring, again Nehring and I have had some negative history as well in recent years. That said, Ron is capable, connected and accomplished. In my formative years in politics, I attended a Leadership Institute seminar he facilitated. The information altered the course of my career in politics and I still apply it to this day. Nehring has connections across the world, developed in the 20 years since he served as CAGOP Chair. I believe Nehring will succeed and add value to the CAGOP. And thank you Ron Nehring for that Leadership Institute seminar I attended in 1999!

Kevin Faulconer. Didn’t like him as a Governor candidate. Love him as a fundraiser and connection person. The role Corrin has placed him in is ideal for the GOP. I only know Kevin politically, I do not know him as well as I do Nehring and Winn. I hope Faulconer Succeeds.

Matt Shupe. He is a talented PR Guy and will be better than anything the CAGOP has ever had in that regard. Shupe is best known for his work on behalf of Harmeet Dhillon – soon to be confirmed as the #2 in the DOJ.

Kevin Lincoln. Don’t know much about him other than his service as Mayor of Stockton and his recent near-miss for Congress. He seems to be an up and comer in the GOP scene.

The message is simple. Corrin Rankin’s GOP is not the CRA GOP. It is not the McCarthy GOP. If you decide to participate and be a part of it, there is room for you. That alone is a dramatic change from the last 25 years I have been around CAGOP politics.

You don’t have to compromise your principles, you just have to be willing to work with people… You have a choice: the same losing with Steve Frank and Tom Hudson – or trying something new?

2025 California Republican Party Convention Recap: Why the Opposition Can’t Have Nice Things (Part 4) Pre-Ordained Conspiracy!

2025 Elections, California Republican Party 9 Responses »

Mar 252025

The poor guy never knew what hit him…

In part three we laid out the time honored pattern:

Step one: The opposition has high hopes, recruits a few good and a few bad candidates.

Step two: Everyone outside the group is labeled a heretic and a traitor to the GOP regardless of ideology

Step three: with the opponents dehumanized, the opposition begins running off the rails with their behavior

Step four: when the tactics fail, the coalition starts to splinter and there is infighting

Step five: Go to CAGOP Convention for a rage fest

Step six: WE WUZ ROBBED!

Blog part three was about step 5 mostly, and today’s completes step 5 and leads in to step 6.

Sunday Morning was the main event. Saturday was punctuated with sighs of relief from the establishment and wailing and gnashing of teeth about “what could have been”. An opportunity to gain as many as two seats on the CAGOP board had passed and just a few votes in the Bay Area regional race forestalled a wipeout.

People could not believe that the Chair of Chairs race went to the second ballot. I could not either as Johanna Lassaga lost a race she should have won. I like both her and Laurie Wallace personally and know their heart is in the right place. But for Lassaga, she did not lead well with regard to interpersonal relations in her current position in the CCA and some of the Chairs that should have voted for her chose John Dennis. Lassaga also hurt herself by being firmly ensconced in the chaos that occurred in several counties as they attempted to organize.

That said, Lassaga is a skilled, talented fundraiser and those in power would do well to employ her skill in that regard.

The floor session on Sunday began with the usual Steve Frank / Tom Hudson style drama and theatrics. (Having participated in more than one of these, I know the whole layout and the players involved well)

The Person in Monterey County that lost her race for chair of that county had a meltdown on the convention floor and was escorted out of the building. At least she did not go full Grcar.

The voting came up for officers:

Corrin Rankin won Chair 747-559.

John Park won vice chair with over 800 votes.

Sayrs Morris beat Laurie Wallace for Secretary by about the same margin as Corrin won. I believed Laurie had a good shot at winning, but feedback I got as I spoke with insiders indicated many people were put off by Laurie being in the middle of several chaotic county party organizational meetings. Worse, Wallace was viewed as part of the cause of the meltdowns in several counties. When you couple this with the fact that Sayrs Morris busted her tail (and made up for her limitations as a public speaker, etc.) and worked hard, a 50-50 race became a comfortable win for her.

After Morris won, the Monterey meltdown occurred and then what I believe was a clearly orchestrated attempt to try and set a false narrative about the voting devices being used at the convention. It is my belief that one of the convention attenders deliberately left their voting device on a bench outside the convention in order to create a scene in addition to the conspiracy theories and bloviations from the floor about the voting system the CAGOP used at the convention.

It turns out that the error message was caused by the one device that was out of range. When the system detected the device was out of range, it was disabled by the system. Someone then tried to use the device later (again, I believe this was set up deliberately) it did not work and caused the above error.

Read and re-read this as many times as is necessary and ask yourself if this is plausible. Also look at the behavior detailed thus far and ask yourself if this the way “Conservatives” are supposed to behave?

After the pre-planned drama, the Treasurer race occurred.

Opposition candidate Jack Guerrero beat Robert Rego by almost the exact same margin that Corrin Rankin won by. I bet it would have been larger without the theatrics. It is very simple, Jack presents himself well and Robert Rego was a terrible candidate. I worked with Robert for many years on the CRA’s board of directors and know of which I speak.

With Guerrero’s large margin of victory – out went the conspiracies about the “clickers” at the CAGOP Convention. Also note that Lani Kane (who lost to John Park, with the largest margin of defeat) posted this drivel on facebook several days after the conclusion of the convention. This just makes her look even worse. Ugh.

As a final thought for the convention itself, it came to my attention that the people behind the lawyer activity leading up to the convention and the legal demand letters the anti-semitic associate’s rep John Paul Duke-White distributed were calling people trying to raise money to cover their out of pocket legal fees. The punchline? They told people they are out over $20K! That does not sound very fiscally conservative now does it.

My head hurts…

Next up, some after convention stuff and my closing thoughts on the CAGOP 2025 saga.

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